Lignite briquette



fatented Jan. 1, 1924.

UNITED STATES than? THOMAS JOSEPH SE'IGHELL, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

LIGNITE BRIQUETTE.

No Drawing. Application filed August 5, 1920, Serial No. 401,425.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS J osnrrr SnTcHnLL, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State ofMinnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in LigniteBriquettes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to the art of making briquettes from lignite coaland is directed to the provision of an improved binder, whereby thebriquettes made from lignite will be tough, will not break under roughhandling, will not disintegrate when exposed to the atmosphere even fora great length of time, and, moreover, will burn with great intensityand completeness.

Lignite when exposed to the atmosphere for a very short time willcrumble or break up into fine form. If the lignite is not al ready insuch divided form, it can be read ily crushed or ground to suchcondition, and should be in pulverized or in finely divided form beforeit is treated with the improved binder, as preparatory to forming thesame into briquettes.

The improved binder is made from tarpitch, common rosin, and glucose. Inpractice, I have obtained extremely satisfactory results by using theabove ingredients in the ground or dust lignite in approximately thefollowing proportions:

One ton ground or fine lignite;

Forty pounds of rosin;

Fifty-five pounds of pitch;

Four pounds of glucose.

The binder forming ingredients above noted should be thoroughly stirredand mixed with the ground or dust lignite, while the latter is warm orhot; and then the lignitethoroughly mixed with the binder and while hotor very warm. should be presented to the molds which will compress thesame to very solid form. The mixing apparatus and the briquette moldingmachines now in general use, and the construction of which are wellunderstood by those familiar of the art, may be and preferably areemployed in making my improved briquettes.

Renewed November 19, 1923.

All of the above noted binder forming ingredients are important. Thetar-pitch has very good adhesive qualities and contains a large numberof latent heat units, so that it is a good binder forming element exceptfor the fact that by itself it produces intense smoke and will causelarge accumulation of carbon.

The rosin is also a good binder forming element, for it is combustibleand will stand the weather better than tar-pitch.

The glucose, as I have found, is an important element. lVhen it is used,the combustion of the briquette, will be more complete than when it isomitted. Moreover, when the glucose is used, the smoke will be of verylight color and there will be either an elimination or very greatlydecreased accumulation of carbon. Experiments that I have made, lead meto believe that the glucose, although not in itself very combustible,enters into some reaction with the burning pitch and probably with therosin which eliminates or decreases smoke and produces more completecombustion than when it is omitted.

The binder, in practice, has been found exceedingly efiicient andsatisfactory for the purposeshad in view. It is not an expensive binder,since it costs only about one dollar per ton of briquettes produced.This one dollar per ton in cost of binder is not really all added'costfor binder purposes alone, because the binder elements, except theglucose, which is in small quantity, contain so many latent heatproducing units that they are in themselves valuable heat producersnearly, in part, if not quite, justifying their use for that purposealone.

What I claim is:

A briquette having a main body of lignite particles compressed and.-bound together by a binder composed of tar-pitch, resin and glucose,the said substances being approximately in the following proportions, towit, two thousand pounds of lignite, fiftyfive pounds of tar-pitch,forty pounds of rosin and four pounds of glucose.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature.

THOMAS JOSEPH SETGHELL.

